In re A was decided by the English courts in 2000. Twin girls, named Jodie and Mary for purposes of the decision, were born joined together at their lower extremities. Jodie's heart and lungs were more or less healthy. But Mary's were insufficiently developed and could not provide her with the flow of blood and oxygen needed to survive. However, the girls shared a single circulatory system so that Jodie's heart pumped blood that flowed through both their bodies. In this manner, Jodie's heart and lungs kept Mary alive. According to the doctors, this situation could continue for a period of three to six months, or a bit longer, at the most. As the girls grew, Jodie would be unable to provide sufficient blood and oxygen to support both Mary and herself. Both would die. The doctors recommended surgical separation of the two girls. Mary would necessarily die “within minutes,” being cut off from her source of sustenance. Jodie would have a good chance of surviving. The legal issue presented was whether the doctors may perform the surgery that would cause Mary's death. At issue were questions concerning the scope of self-defense and necessity. In the course of the Court's opinions, brief reference was made to Jewish law. This article considers the Jewish law sources that bear on these issues.

This article examines the role of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) in Russia and the impact of tightening governmental accountability measures. Drawing on 18 interviews conducted in 2012–13 with Russian and international ENGOs, the article examines three key governance issues, namely: the collaborative relationship between the state and ENGOs, the impact of accountability measures on ENGO activities, and the relationships between ENGOs themselves. The findings reveal that ENGOs maintain a legitimate and effective role within Russian environmental governance. However, their legitimacy and success is significantly limited and threatened by increasing accountability measures and state actions. The article accordingly identifies a number of recommendations for increasing the likelihood of successful ENGO action in Russian environmental governance, including improving ENGO collaboration with the state and resolving tensions between participation and accountability.

Coming to terms with foreign otherness in 1900 inevitably involved interpretation, negotiation and acceptance of the ungraspable ‘space between’ the oral and the written. Julien Tiersot's transcriptions of non-western music into western notation tell us more about racial preconceptions and the search for musical universals than about musical difference. Léon Azoulay, French physician and member of the Société d'Anthropologie, similarly presumed something universal in human languages, and wished to fix them through ‘non-systematic’ transcriptions into phonemes and ‘semi-literal’ translations. However, whereas Tiersot took dictation from musicians performing at the Paris Universal Exhibitions, in 1900 Azoulay made over 400 wax cylinder recordings there. This little-known and, until recently, unavailable collection includes diverse languages and dialects, accompanied by notes on the linguistic and sociological characteristics of those recorded. These documents shed light upon the ‘revolution in knowledge’ they sought to bring about, and how the genre of transcription reveals fundamental aspects of the colonial experience.

‘The new art of music is derived from the old signs – and these now stand for the musical art itself.’1 With this statement, Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) summarized his main criticism of traditional music notation – that it was lifeless and outdated. Based on an analysis of Busoni's organic method of keyboard notation (1909), an examination of composition sketches and performance scores, and an investigation of his writings about notation in aesthetic texts – in particular the Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music (1907) – this article shows how Busoni's multifaceted views about notation forged a middle ground between the work as text and the work as performance in an age enthralled to the idea of Werktreue. In addition, it traces the continuing influence of Busoni's ideas about notation on Arnold Schoenberg and other contemporaneous theorists and composers.

US-China relations represent the most central bilateral relationship in the world, but few studies investigate the two countries’ approaches to the Arctic. This article explores the geopolitical shifts in the Arctic, and compares and contrasts American and Chinese policy in the region. The article examines to what extent the two have common or conflicting interests, and discusses the potential for US-China friction and rivalry. Some alarmist writers suggest that the future Arctic is set for confrontation. This article, however, argues that the current stakes in the circumpolar Arctic region are not sufficiently high to warrant confrontation between the two states. Cooperation predominantly guides their policies and activities. While they play different roles and increasingly seek to demonstrate their influence, there are common interests, such as in the freedom of the seas, in resource extraction and in developing infrastructure in the region.

This article examines the meeting point of Olivier Messiaen, Australia and birdsong, particularly as it relates to the transcription of pied butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis) vocalizations. It draws upon correspondence from Messiaen to the Australian ornithologist Sydney Curtis, printed here for the first time, as well as two recordings not previously available to musicologists, from which Messiaen transcribed. Both the recorded birdsong models and Messiaen's transcription of them in his cahiers are subjected to sonographic and waveform analysis. In analytical scrutiny of eight of these transcriptions, I demonstrate that Messiaen's pied butcherbird transcriptions conform to their models in a partial and highly personal way. I propose a provisional template for Messiaen's approach to birdsong transcription, in order to answer Alexander Goehr's question: ‘Why do birds sound like birds, but Messiaen's birds sound like Messiaen?’